When You Say Nothing At All
by AlwaysSVU34
Summary: Another oneshot songfic! This one is Alex/Casey but friendship only. It explores how they became bestfriends and where it went from there. It's different but very special to me. This is my second story and I truly hope you enjoy it. Please Read and Review!


"**When You Say Nothing At All"**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Law and Order SVU or any of the characters. They belong to Dick Wolf and NBC. I also do not own the song or the lyrics- they belong to whomever originally wrote them. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Author's Note: **I'll start by saying this story is a little different. It's Alex/Casey but friendship only. In fact, they are bestfriends. It's told from Alex's point of view. I wrote this specifically for my bestfriend, Deanna. It has elements of our story and friendship in it. It's another oneshot songfic (which is probably going to become my M.O.) I truly hope you enjoy this even if it is not what you expected or are used to. Lyrics are in italics. Please read and review.

_It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart_

_Without saying a word you can light up the dark_

_Try as I may I could never explain _

_What I hear when you don't say a thing_

We couldn't be any more different, but at the same time, we're exactly the same.

I'm a blonde. She was too, once, but I think she looks better with her natural red hair. She has green eyes and mine are blue. We're both tall, thin, and pale. We're also both loud but it's no contest that she is louder. She's Catholic and I'm….well I believe in someone being up there. I pick at my fingernails when I get nervous while she chews on hers. We can't share shoes because her feet are enormous. We don't even bother trying to talk about politics. I'm a crazy football fanatic and she plays softball. We both live off Chinese and love ice cream. We also obsess over our favorite TV shows that we never have time to watch. But our most important similarity is the passion we feel for the job we do. Somebody has to do it and we have both proven just how far we are willing to go for justice…..

There's irony in the fact that our friendship began when I came back from the dead. I had known of you before I had to go away but I had never met you. And then the first time I did meet you I went all "Alex Cabot" on you. Somehow you put up with it and after we finished going over testimony you opened a bottle of wine and we really got to talk for the first time. We talked about our first cases at SVU- a crotch being set on fire and the Honey Rapist. I told you about being held in contempt by Judge Petrovsky. You told me about having to go interrupt Judge Terhune's poker game-twice.

When silence settled in it was the most comfortable one of my entire life. I don't like silence- I'll usually do or say anything just for the sake of noise. But this felt different. I felt so at peace, all my worries and concerns about the following day just melted away. My heart felt lighter in that moment than it had in the entire year that I had been away. It's hard to explain in words but it felt like we were having a conversation with no words. And it was the best conversation of my life.

_The smile on your face lets me know that you need me_

_There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me_

_The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall_

_You say it best when you say nothing at all_

Then you smiled at me and in that smile I saw everything. You told me that you knew how hard this-coming back-was for me. You appreciated it because you needed me- it had been your brilliant idea to arrest Liam Connors for my murder after all. When I looked into your emerald green eyes I could read everything- both what you were trying to express and what you were trying to hide. You wanted me to see and believe that you would be there for me during the trial and make my testimony as painless as possible. You would be there to object when the defense tried to pull crap like we both knew they would. You didn't want me to see the fear that lurked in the corners of your eyes. You were worried that Connors might do something crazy and hurt me. So was I-the same fear I saw in you lurked in the corners of my eyes too.

You must have noticed that because you reached over and squeezed my hand in silent reassurance. The bad guys were not going to win this one- justice would be done. How could it not be with Casey Novak as the prosecutor and Alexandra Cabot as the star witness? When we finally got up to leave you hugged me. That little action and not saying anything at all meant far more to me than a million words ever could have.

_All day long I hear people talking out loud_

_But when you hold me near, you drown out the crowd_

_Old Mr. Webster could never define _

_What's being said between your heart and mine_

You were the only person from what I considered to be my old life that I had any contact with when I came back to New York. I took that job as the Homicide Bureau Chief at the D.A.'s office but I didn't feel like myself. I avoided the SVU detectives like the plague. Elliot and Olivia had been there and I didn't want to remember every time I looked at them. But you- I had the overwhelming desire to see you. So one day at lunch I snuck down to your office and convinced your secretary to give me your address and not you I had been there.

It took me another week to work up the nerve to go see you- I was actually surprised that we hadn't had any contact at work already. I didn't know what to expect when I knocked on your apartment door that Friday evening. You looked surprised when you opened the door. You hair was pulled up sloppily and you were wearing yoga pants and a purple tank top.

"Hi," I whispered.

You stared for a minute and then said, "I thought you were the delivery guy." Then you walked away, leaving the door open for me.

You sat down on your sofa and I decided to perch on the chair that was next to it. Then I began to talk. And talk and talk and talk. I told you everything about what had happened the rest of the time I was away and after I came back. I tried to explain to you the way I was feeling but it was so incredibly hard to explain. In court I have never been at a loss for words but in that moment I was. And I was crying- something Alex Cabot just doesn't do. You just listened- you weren't trying to speak, weren't judging me. You were letting me be me for the first time in years. Something was happening between our hearts and souls that could never be properly described or defined by anyone.

_The smile on your face lets me know that you need me_

_There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me_

_The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall_

_You say it best when you say nothing at all_

When I finally finished I waited for some kind, any kind, of a response. So you smiled. That smile told me how happy you were to see me and that you didn't care that you hadn't seen me sooner. Your eyes told me that you understood and that I hadn't scared or disgusted you by letting go and crying. The genuine care I saw in them let me know that you had heard everything I said and wanted to help me work through it all and get back to being me. Like the time before you touched my arm and I felt safe. The bad guys, all of them, were gone and you would be around to deal with anyone else that might come along. Again like before you pulled me into a hug and made me feel better than any two hundred dollar an hour shrink could have.

And then we talked. We talked about all the things we have never had the chance to talk about before. We talked childhood, high school, college and law school, boyfriends, other friends, movies, books, music. We talked on deep subjects like our philosophy, our hopes and dreams for the future, our fears and every single insecurity we had ever felt. It was the first time either of us had been totally honest with another person on this planet. We solidified a bestfriendship that we both knew, without a doubt, would last for forever.

_The smile on your face lets me know that you need me_

_There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me_

_The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall_

_You say it best when you say nothing at all_

7 years later

Looking back on our friendship it is very clear that we have had both good times and bad times. But we have celebrated and gotten through them – and so much more- together. Our connection is simply amazing. We can have whole conversations just by looking at each other and sometimes when we do speak it is at the exact same time to say the exact same thing. It really freaks people out sometimes. But to us that's just us. More people than you would think have asked us if we're a couple. It stopped upsetting us a long time ago and now we just laugh. Sometimes we think it's fun to grab hands and say, "Yes, yes we are." We even argue like a married couple.

As I said, there have been road bumps along the way because nothing in life is easy or totally fair. Casey was censured because of a Brady violation and went through a really dark period. I didn't handle returning to SVU when McCoy asked me to as well as I thought I would. Then I decided to go to Africa and prosecute cases in the Congo for the International Crimes Court. While I was away Casey's three year censure ended and she had to claw her way back to where she belonged. Then there's the drama from our personal lives. Casey had to go down to the morgue to identify the body of her ex-boyfriend Charlie. I came far too close to marrying a Wall Street broker named Robert.

Life has never been boring. Especially now that we are both back to working full-time at the D.A.'s office. Casey has been working in Appeals for a few months now- mostly retrying any SVU cases that show up on the docket. I've been floating around trying to find a home. I think it will always really be at SVU. I'll have to figure out a scheme to get Barba to transfer. Word on the street is that we sucks with victims anyway.

Our passion for justice has not diminished over the years even with age and everything that has happened to us. It doesn't matter if the case is challenging or a slam-dunk. It doesn't matter if things change tomorrow or don't change for another seven years. Because in the end, we're happy with our lives and we're bestfriends forever. We're never scared to talk about something because one of us might say the wrong thing. Because we know it doesn't really matter in the end and because we both know that a hug can fix most any problem that we have in the world. After all, we both say it best when we say nothing at all.

The End

**Author's Note:** Well, there it is. I hope you enjoyed it! Please review!

This story is dedicated to my bestfriend. Things have never been easy for us and right now not everything feels exactly right but always know that I love you. And "I'll be the greatest fan of your life."

Thank-you for being my Casey.

-Your Alex,

Emi


End file.
